Producer TIPS - Ep3 KEEP IT REAL

There are an amazing and generous amount of music samples and virtual instruments available out there. It has never been easier to flesh out and realise our musical ideas in a virtual world. Gone are the days when composers need to pitch ideas on a piano and hope the client has the imagination and faith that the finished music arrangement will meet expectations.

A music producer's job description has evolved over the last few decades too. It was once the case that a producer mostly coordinated and oversaw the recording of live musicians, hired arrangers and conductors and negotiated with record labels. These days the role has expanded to include new skills such as digital instrument programming.
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One of the challenges to being spoilt for choice in this digital music world, is deciding where to stop. Arrangers were once presented with the available line-up of musicians and wrote accordingly. Now we can throw in any conceivable instrument that has ever been invented. I've discovered over the years that it's so important to place some barriers around the various music arrangements I produce. Without them the results can become generic, beige or messy. For example, if I decide to program a string ensemble, I will ensure that I remain within the confines of a section of real musicians. I stay within the natural ranges of the instruments, I place them in their traditional location within a stereo arc, and I leverage the natural qualities of the instruments to fill out the sound. The temptation is sometimes to layer multiple string sections together, add pads and effects etc to achieve a gut punching result. I admit this sometimes creates a formidable result, but it's a slippery slope. You only have to listen to a few Marvel movie trailers to hear how much we have moved past a realistic sound. Maybe this is just the old-school in me talking. But for me it isn't about resisting progress, but more about honouring the musicians, instruments, composers and arrangers of the past. Nobody would say that the original Star Wars theme needs to be enhanced. John Williams was an absolute master of orchestration and demonstrated time and time again how good arranging achieves all the depth and power a piece of music needs. I'd even say perhaps if you need to bolster your music with three times the amount of parts, then perhaps the problem lies in the writing.

The 'less is more' approach also holds true. I'd argue the best songs and compositions out there have delivered on the absolute minimum elements. The original Beatles songs had 4 instruments. It's all about placement. If you can make a limited number of elements dance together and fill every need of the piece, there is a purity and perfection (and even a mathematical symmetry) that makes the music even more amazing.